Ontology

Ontology is the study and investigation of the nature of existence, especially of what kinds of things exist, and related topics.Ontological questions in the philosophy of jazz are of the general form:WHAT is this? Does it exist or not? What are its features and properties?

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“Musical ontologists study the kinds of musical things there are—works, performances, recordings, and so on—and the relationships that hold between them. I have argued that there is a useful distinction to be drawn between two projects in this field. ‘Fundamental’ musical ontology is the study of the basic metaphysical categories into which musical entities fall. (This project usually takes works and performances of Western classical music, more or less broadly construed, and more or less explicitly, as its target.) ‘Higher-order’ musical ontology asks questions that can be answered independently of a fundamental musical-ontological theory, such as what conditions must be met in order for a performance to be of a given work.”[1]